Threadneedle Fund Review

Despite 8 of their funds maintaining top performance, 53 underperformed

Over £47 billion of funds are currently held across the range of Threadneedle pension funds and unit trust funds

£30 billion of assets under management placed in underperforming funds

In 2015 Threadneedle investments renamed Columbia Threadneedle upon merging with US sister company Columbia Management. The merger has seen Columbia Threadneedle become the 30th largest fund manager in the world with worldwide assets of over £360 billion under management.

Despite the rebranding, UK investors currently only have access to the Threadneedle range of investment funds. For this review we carried out a comprehensive performance and ranking analysis of all Threadneedle pension funds and unit trust funds. Each fund was analysed alongside every other competing same sector fund over the most recent 1, 3 & 5 years and ranked based on their sector performance.

In total we analysed 93 funds were analysed and despite having some top performing investment options, our report identified that the majority of funds under the management of Threadneedle are underperforming.

Threadneedle Fund Review

In order to complete our comprehensive report on the performance of Threadneedle’s funds we analysed a total of 93 funds that hold over £47 billion of assets. This covers some £7 billion in their pension funds together with around £40 billion in their unit trust funds.

The below performance summary identifies that 41 of the 71 Threadneedle unit trust funds analysed have underperformed. Each of these 41 funds rated as poor performing as they ranked in the lowest 50% of performers within their sectors during the recent 5 year period.

Our analysis of Threadneedle’s 22 pension funds established that 12 of them have also underperformed, with a significant £5.7 billion of money invested into their pension funds held in funds that have underperformed. This figure represents 81% of the total assets held in their range of pension funds.

Top Performing Threadneedle Funds

Our analysis identified that a total of 8 Threadneedle funds currently provide investors with consistently top performing investment options. Each of these 8 funds have been able to consistently outperform at least 75% of competing same sector funds consistently over the recent 1, 3 & 5 year periods.

The ‘Threadneedle UK Equity Income’ fund is currently the most popular of Threadneedle’s top performers. This unit trust fund holds over £3.4 billion of investment and over the most recent 5 year period it outperformed 86% of competing same sector funds with growth of 88.52%. Despite this impressive growth the top performing fund in the same sector achieved growth of 131.75% over the same time frame.

From the Threadneedle pension fund range the ‘Threadneedle UK Equity 1’ pension fund has also consistently maintained top quartile sector performance over a 5 year period. This fund currently holds just over £165 million of assets and ranked 50th out of 213 funds in it sector over the recent 5 years with growth of 79.29%.

Disappointing Performance From 57% of Threadneedle Funds

As for the poor rated funds, they have ranked in the bottom 50% when compared to the competing funds during the recent 5 year period. Our analysis identified 53 of Threadneedle’s funds to have underperformed during this period, 41 of which were unit trust funds and 12 were pension funds. One of the most disappointing Threadneedle funds was the ‘Threadneedle European’ unit trust fund. This fund returned growth of 14.76% over the most recent 12 months which was outperformed by 95% of same sector funds. In contrast, the best performing fund in the same sector achieved growth of 39.75% over the same time frame.

From their pension range of funds the ‘Threadneedle Property’ fund has also disappointed recently. This fund had delivered strong returns over the recent 3 & 5 years but over the course of the past 12 months it has struggled in comparison to competing same sector funds and ranked 811th out of 962 funds for growth over the recent 1 year period.

Summary

The majority of Threadneedle funds are ranked in the poor category following our extensive analysis. Yet, it is clear that there are also some funds in under their management that have consistently delivered highly competitive returns over the last 5 years.

However, consistency has been an issue for many of their funds, with a number of them varying greatly in their returns and competitiveness over a 5 year period.

The above information provides an overview from our analysis of the performance of Threadneedle’s funds. Access the full report now gain a comprehensive insight into the performance and ranking of all 93 funds managed by Threadneedle.